The present disclosure generally relates to health and nutrition. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to bottles and methods useful in the storage and delivery of nutritional compositions and other fluids are described.
The delivery of nutritional compositions to mammals, such as human patients, that cannot orally ingest food or other forms of nutrition is often of critical importance. For example, enteral bottles having feeding tubes that deposit food directly into the gastrointestinal tract at a point below the mouth are often used to sustain life while a patient is unable, or refuses, to take food orally. Bottles, feeding tubes and other artificial delivery systems and routes can be used temporarily during the treatment of acute medical conditions. For chronic medical conditions, such systems and routes can be used as part of a treatment regimen that lasts for the remainder of a patient's life. No matter the duration of use, these devices often provide the only means for feeding the patient.
Fluid nutritional compositions, frequently referred to as “formula” are typically stored in feeding container to be administered to patients. The use of conventional rigid formula containers has drawbacks, particularly in the clinical setting. For example, because the act of piercing the container with a spike involves the collection and handling of multiple components, an opportunity to introduce contamination into the nutritional composition is created. In addition, as the formula is administered to the patient, air spaces left in the rigid bottle may provide space for microbes, especially bacteria to collect thereby contaminating the formula and in some cases, reducing hang times of the solution. Considering the direct route the formula will take into the patient, contaminated formula can lead to infection, including serious and difficult to treat nosocomial infections. Contaminated formula can also lead to microbial growth in the feeding tube, necessitating its flushing and/or replacement.